Reinier de Ridder ‘can’t walk up stairs’ without losing breath weeks after UFC Vancouver loss

UFC middleweight contender Reinier de Ridder detailed his physical struggles in the weeks following a stunning loss at UFC Vancouver.

Reinier de Ridder appeared on the cusp of a potential UFC middleweight title shot entering UFC Vancouver. After De Ridder was originally supposed to face Anthony Hernandez before the latter’s withdrawal, Brendan Allen stepped up on relatively short notice to face De Ridder in the UFC Vancouver main event.

Despite De Ridder entering the fight as a modest favorite, Allen pulled off the massive TKO upset after De Ridder’s corner threw in the towel in between rounds. De Ridder looked visibly defeated and exhausted in his corner as Allen appeared to drown the top contender.

Since UFC Vancouver, De Ridder has been relatively coy on what went wrong in the Octagon against Allen. It turns out, De Ridder was fighting more than just Allen on fight night.

Reinier de Ridder makes scary admission about his health after UFC Vancouver defeat

In a recent interview with Submission Radio, De Ridder made a scary admission about his health weeks removed from UFC Vancouver.

“I still feel like s—, when I walk up stairs, I’m out of breath,” de Ridder said.

“There’s a lot of information coming back from the blood work. I don’t want to be too specific because then I won’t get a rematch, but there’s some physical stuff that’s wrong, and I’m going to see if I can fix all of this before I come back. It’s something I’ve struggled with in the past, with the [Anatoly Malykhin] fight, and I thought I fixed it but apparently I didn’t.

“I’m working to find out everything, to get everything straight and get a good plan to get this fixed…it’s hard to take time off, because I want to get back in there as soon as possible…I’m looking for a new obsession [LAUGHS].”

As of this writing, a timeline for De Ridder’s return to the Octagon remains uncertain. UFC fans can safely assume De Ridder likely won’t return to the Octagon until next summer, at the earliest.